That would mean the mini costs the same as the regular-sized iPad 2 at identical specs (memory, CPU, display resolution). That's rather unlikely

To me, that seems very likely. It is rumored to pretty much be an iPad 2 but less. The screen in the Mini might be more expensive than the 2, but everything else would be less (materials) or the same (RAM). The CPU will be older. I see no reason why the Mini wouldn't cost the same or less than the 2.

(edit: rereading what you wrote, I think I misunderstood. Yeah, I agree it could be less that the numbers I quoted)

In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if Apple discontinued the 2. Want a full size iPad? Get a Retina. Otherwise get a Mini.

The iPod touch is priced at $299. iPad 3 at $499. An iPad mini would start at $399, presumably.

Apple hasn't really cared about overlap from the higher end models I think, most stuff has higher end specs that have higher prices than other higher starting priced models. Going by advertised prices the iPod touch is "from $199" so I figure anything above that is open.

Tsur wrote:

In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if Apple discontinued the 2. Want a full size iPad? Get a Retina. Otherwise get a Mini.

The iPad 2 is basically just around as a cheap iPad. iPad mini would be a cheap iPad and something unique in the lineup, for better or worse depending on how you feel about the form factor, but ultimately still differentiates itself beyond just the price point.

...then again the previous iPhones stick around just as cheaper iPhones, but there hasn't been a different product to fill that void (other than the iPod touch for non phone use).

I'm optimistic about it. My iPad 1 is getting long in the tooth at this point and I was surprised how much I use and enjoy the Nexus 7. The significant weight reduction makes a huge difference in portability and usability . I think a slightly larger tablet (than the Nexus 7) with iOS's superior apps could be right what I'm looking for. I guess we'll know next week.

I work on a 13 inch MBA all day in clamshell mode hooked up to a 23 inch Dell monitor. At home it's used for couch surfing. My wife and I have iPhones ... my kids have iPod Touches. And I still have my old PowerBook G4 laying around in case the kids need a computer to do some homework. So it's been hard to justify an iPad ... even though I'd love to have one. But I just might pull the trigger for a cheaper iPad Mini. It would be the perfect size for eBooks, couch surfing, traveling, homework, etc. So we shall see ....

Yeah, they will sell a lot of them. Tech press reaction is irrelevant - they have been pretty much wrong about everything Apple has put out.

And everyone will immediately run out of space since 8 GB is not that much really.

Didn't you know? Everything is in the Cloud these days. Who needs storage?

No I didn't know you could stream iOS apps from the cloud.

Some people use third party apps, some can be huge. That said...

TheVelourFog wrote:

Indeed. With connectivity everywhere, I'll stick with the lowest capacity ones. Just give me enough space for the OS and a few gigs for random stuff and I'm good. The 8GB model looks perfect.

I'd probably be in this boat if I just use it as a secondary iPad. I was sort of a pack rat and habitual app downloader on my iPad and iPhone and have both nearly filled (32 and 16GB), but on my old one where I was more selective about apps I only have around 8GB used (of 32GB capacity) on there, and I think a large chunk of that is games I left around for my nephew and niece. A lot of the apps and games that I use tend to be on the largish side though, so I could be cutting it close.

Im curious. I just bought my first tablet, a Nexus 7 about a month ago. I really like it, but 2 areas I think Android really sucks are music apps and music playback. The N7 has terrible latency in audio apps. All these real time instrument apps are useless on the N7 and from what I've read Android in general. The ipad unquestionably has more higher quality audio apps and much better performance there simply is NO comparison.

Then theres Itunes vs Google Music. Simply put, Google Music sucks. I have to correct a lot of albums/songs I know have been tagged properly with the right artwork and metadata, but when they appear on Google Music they're incorrect. Then theres the Google Music app which frankly sucks on the Nexus 7. Its ugly and I dont like using it. The only reason I use Google Music is 20,000 songs uploaded for free. Great way to back up my mp3 collection. But beyond that the app is terrible. I wish Poweramp would support streaming from Google Music but for over a year now they've promised a release supporting GM and nada. I dont use itunes much, but with that and itunes match plus the audio app ordeal Im interested in an Ipad mini for that alone.

That said I just dont see how it could be priced like a Nexus 7 16gb, if the ipod touch is $299 for the lowest model, especially if it has LTE or some cellular tech. No matter, if the mini has a resolution lower than the N7 theres no friggin way I'd get one. I'd rather just spend the extra and get the real thing with retina. Thats a total deal breaker for me. I dont care how good the apps are, if the screen resolution is any lower than what I get with the N7, you'd have to pay me to use an ipad Mini.

The Nexus 7 size was great, I much rather it to the iPad, however the software was bad - the developers dont seem bothered about making apps specifically for a 7" device, so they were either big phone apps, or small tablet apps. Great hardware, poor software.

So now that i've sold the Nexus 7 I am very much looking forward to what the iPad Mini brings.

I might get one to supplement the iPad 2 and give it to the misses for her birthday in November, she won't have to steal mine then!

The way you worded this, I thought you meant you were going to get the iPad mini to replace your iPad 2, then give the iPad 2 ("it") to your wife for her birthday...I was going to say, you're going to give your wife your old iPad as a birthday present? That's shitty...then I realized what you meant

I'm thinking about getting my wife an iPad mini to replace her MacBook...she happened to get it in mid-2009, shortly before the first iPad came out, and doesn't do anything with it that an iPad wouldn't be better suited for. Plus, she uses it around the house, but the battery died so she has to plug it in everywhere...not that we can't get a new battery, but for the cost, an iPad mini (assuming $250) isn't much more. And I could sell the MacBook and pretty much cover the cost of it too!

I'm looking forward to it. I've been using a Nexus 7 tablet I was able to get for $140 outta my pocket. The size is perfect and its been fun playing with Android but the build quality of this thing sucks. The body has quite a bit of flex and mine has the loose screen problem so the left side is always rising above the bezel. It's not a bad product but its not great. No doubt I'll unload this thing to an Android junkie when the mini comes out.

Rumors seem to be coalescing around a $250 8GB iPad mini for the bottom end. I readily believe in the $250 price point; but 8GB seems chintzy for an iPad. Guess that could be how Apple manages to make a profit at that price point.

This is probably not a popular opinion, but I wouldn't mind a slightly LARGER iPad. I read a lot of scanned PDFs on my iPad, and a larger screen -- even just an inch larger -- would do wonders.

I agree that it's not always perfect with the 9.7" iPad but I get by.

I actually wrote a blog post today on the topic of using tablets to read PDFs--I was wondering if it is possible for the 7.85" iPad to still be big enough to read PDFs/scans without panning and scrolling, but I don't think it is. I tested by trying to read from Preview windows on my Macbook that were sized to be the rumored size of the iPad mini/air.

Rumors seem to be coalescing around a $250 8GB iPad mini for the bottom end. I readily believe in the $250 price point; but 8GB seems chintzy for an iPad. Guess that could be how Apple manages to make a profit at that price point.

The 16 GB iPad 2 is $399. With a smaller display, I hope Apple can keep 16 GB in the iPad mini for $249 and not have to drop to 8. Especially since the iPod touch now comes in 16 GB minimum. It would be weird to have the $199 iPod touch come with 16 GB of storage, while the $249 iPad mini only comes with 8...

I might get one to supplement the iPad 2 and give it to the misses for her birthday in November, she won't have to steal mine then!

That's my plan as well, so that my wife can quit hogging my iPad 3 all the time.

This is also my primary motivation. It would be interesting to see who ended up using which one more… the better half tends to watch videos on it, I think I would read more… so really I'd just be buying "her" an iPad mini so I could "steal" it from her so I wouldn't have to "steal" "my" iPad back from her…

I'll give you odds that you're wrong. Apple doesn't play that game. Ever since Jobs, they stopped protecting higher margin products from being cannibalized by lower end products. Besides, crippling the product as you suggested would ruin their all too precious user experience.

Yes, especially once I can figure out how to mount it in place of the double-DIN abomination that came with my VW. Everything right there, my music, traffic, podcasts, iMessage (using Siri, of course), lolcats screen saver.

I could see an educational push but I don't see them limiting it to education when the hardware can do everything else, while the administrative software can lock it down to whatever is wanted for educational use. It'd be artificially locking out people that want a cheap and/or small iPad to protect the larger/more expensive one, which they might not have been interested in to begin with.

I could see an educational push but I don't see them limiting it to education when the hardware can do everything else, while the administrative software can lock it down to whatever is wanted for educational use. It'd be artificially locking out people that want a cheap and/or small iPad to protect the larger/more expensive one, which they might not have been interested in to begin with.

Exactly. They might spin it as being better for education because of the lower price and increased portability, but they're definitely not going to limit it to education. That's thinking too small. Why wouldn't they leverage everything they've already got (App Store, etc.)? That's what makes the device so appealing in the first place.

People had the same thought before the original iPad came out; that it was going to be primarily an e-reader to take on the Kindle. In hindsight, that's absurd; they'd really just ignore the incredible success of the App Store and come out with a new device to take on a competitor's niche?

And, likewise, before the original iPhone came out, everyone thought it was going to be "an iPod that makes phone calls." The genius of it, of course, was that the entirety of the iPod became just one app out of a dozen others.

I might get one to supplement the iPad 2 and give it to the misses for her birthday in November, she won't have to steal mine then!

That's my plan as well, so that my wife can quit hogging my iPad 3 all the time.

This is also my primary motivation. It would be interesting to see who ended up using which one more… the better half tends to watch videos on it, I think I would read more… so really I'd just be buying "her" an iPad mini so I could "steal" it from her so I wouldn't have to "steal" "my" iPad back from her…

Well I'm glad I'm not the only one! Although my iPad now is a secondary TV and a games console pretty much. Apart from the odd internet search for something quick.

It'll be interesting to see which one gets used more often, and more importantly, which one is more comfortable watching TV in bed with.

9to5Mac says the iPad mini will start at $329. Assuming that's true, I predict the press will complain that this is too expensive because it was "supposed to be" $249 (based on rumors never confirmed by Apple). In reality, $329 is still $170 less than the 10" iPad, and Apple's sold 86 million of those in less than three years, so...it's hard to imagine how a very similar device priced at nearly $200 less could possible fare worse. Once again, the media will be calling it a "miss," proclaiming that Apple is "losing its touch," etc., while simultaneously, Apple will be selling them by the boatload...

It's funny how this whole cycle repeats with every single new Apple product, as if no one ever remembers the past...

And, likewise, before the original iPhone came out, everyone thought it was going to be "an iPod that makes phone calls." The genius of it, of course, was that the entirety of the iPod became just one app out of a dozen others.

Ha I remember all those lame mockups of the virtual click wheel. Proof that there's people who know how to design interfaces and those who try to.

I said in my last post if it had a smaller resolution than my N7 and costs more than $299 then thats a deal breaker, and at 1024x768 and $329 its a deal breaker. I was starting to feel a bit of buyers remorse for getting the N7 a month before this announcement, but Im glad I didnt wait.

I have to decide on my 4g provider now. With my current iPad (3rd generation) I went with AT&T LTE to get more use out of my grandfathered unlimited SIM. But I have been less then impressed with their LTE coverage. $30 for real unlimited LTE is compelling though.